The legacy of Kay Yow

January 24, 2009, 10:59PM

The world of sports -- no, the world in general -- lost a great ambassador with the passing of longtime North Carolina State women's basketball coach Kay Yow on Saturday.

Yow passed away at age 66 following a battle with cancer that first began in 1987. Locally, she was recognized with a moment of silence before the Syracuse-Pitt game in the Carrier Dome.

Yow's 737 career victories were impressive, but didn't come close to defining her impact on sports and humanity. She was instrumental in helping grow the college women's game, and she did it wth class and dignity.

Thank you for your story and the link. For those who disparage the women's game, may I suggest they link to the article.

As a girl growing up in the mid-60s, and the athlete of the extended family, the girls' game in the mid-60s was frustrating. You were either offense or defense because the center of the court was the limit of your particular playing field. You could only dribble 3 times. The uniforms were ridiculous. No one bothered to come and watch the games. Boys, then as now, disparaged us, the ridiculous rules (well, they were right on that one) and told us we could not represent the school - only they could. But we played on, knowing that our careers ended at the end of high school.

We moved on to college and began the movement for women's sports. Title IX came too late for me, otherwise I would have gotten a scholarship. But I went out of my way to find the SU women's basketball coach at the time to interview her for a local, now defunct, sports weekly.

Some seeds take a long time to germinate and begin to grow. It is good to see the SU women's team making some noise. Wish I were local so I could lend them my support. As I cannot, I hope they'll know that there are people out there who do support them and wish them all the success they can possibly experience.